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Beacon Memories

Portland Magazine

June 21, 2024

AFTER 34 YEARS of sitting behind KGW-TV’s morning anchor desk, Brenda Braxton ’85 announced her retirement from broadcasting. The news took me straight back to 1985—to the offices of The Beacon during its 50th year—where her training in journalism began.

Staff of the Beacon newspaper in 1985
Left to right (bottom row): Nadine Woodward ’85, Julie (Edwards) Yand ’87, Jennifer Yocum ’86,
Judy (Piatz) Carbone ’85, Teri (Van House) Cettina ’86. Left to right (top row): Brad Newgard ’86,
Brenda Braxton ’85, Jim Kane (Beacon Advisor), Becky Revak ’87, Dan Christopherson ’88.

 

We were two of the newspaper’s editors. We did old school, hands-on, print newspaper work back then. Manual typewriters were on the way out as we all jockeyed for quality time on the lone office word processor. We meticulously pasted up pages on large layout boards—slicing waxed sheets of copy with X-Acto knives. Brenda and I would make up dance moves to catchy ’80s pop tunes as we rallied through late nights finishing the paper for its weekly delivery around campus.

While UP didn’t offer a broadcast news degree, several from that Beacon crew navigated to reporting on the small screen. I always figured our liberal arts education primed us for any adventure. Brenda served as the news section editor—just four years prior to making her professional home at KGW-TV. She anchored college newscasts on UPTV alongside Nadine Woodward ’85, a fellow “Beaconite” whose many years as a Spokane TV news anchor culminated with a recent stint as mayor. I was the sports editor that year, setting a foundation for my own run as a Portland TV sports anchor.

My Beacon mentor, editor-in-chief Judy (Piatz) Carbone ’85, crafted a career as a TV news producer. City editor Brad Newgard ’86 and his reassuring voice filled Portland’s airwaves on News Radio KEX. Managing editor Teri (Van House) Cettina ’86 stayed in the writing lane, editing early editions of this magazine and writing incisively about her own brave battle with cancer before passing away a few years ago. We miss her dearly.

I brought along my cherished Beacon team photo when I returned to campus in 2021 to work in the Marketing and Communications Department. The image ties my heyday as a UP student to my daily work promoting excellence on The Bluff.

DAN CHRISTOPHERSON ’88 is UP’s director of public affairs.